To all the experienced, successful traders: if you could go back to the beginning of your trading career and tell yourself some things, what would they be? The answer(s) can be strictly trading-related, or just more general 'life' things that may have helped. An example of this is my boss says you must have an identity to sustain long-term success. Thanks.
Traders put 95% of their time and resources into the methodology when it only represents 5% of determining success Put 95% of your time and money into the things that will determine 95% of your outcome.. Money Management and Trading Psychology
Give something time to actually work. Treat trading as a business and it can pay you like one. Treat it like a hobby and it will pay you like one.
I intend to ignore anyone claiming to be from the future and offering advice. These guidelines serve me well every day: 1) Feel my feelings. Pain is a warning flag. Pain leads me to the source of pain. Find the source of pain and deal with the source of pain. Feelings are messages. Feelings are important. 2) I choose what I do. I am responsible for what happens to me. 3) Create or buy a trading simulator, develop my own trading systems, use computers to analyze the behavior of prices. I choose to learn about flying airplanes. <img src=http://www.pcc.org/members/reviews/images/flight_simulator.jpg \img> I choose to not crash and burn.
Trade what you see and not what you think for the market does'nt care what you think. All seconday indicators like RSI, CCI, etc are complete BULLSHIT and a waste of time! If your going to be wrong, be early and wrong. If your trade does'nt go how you invisioned it get the hell out now! Think of it this way if your driving down a highway at 65MPH on 4 tires and one wheel falls off do you keep driving or get the hell off the rode? If you keep driving your a dumb ass and get what you deserve! Be prepared for your trading day! Enter every trade as if you are wrong and make the market prove you wrong. If your not feeling well don't trade. If you were very sick and knew it could effect your job when going to work and possibly get yourself fired by not performing or possibly causing a screw up at work costing them money and your job would you do it? NO! So, don't do it trading because trading is work. Never force a trade because you can't find what your looking for. If you went 2 days of not being able to find the trade-setups you want and make no money, it is better than making dumbass trades for 2 days and having to waste another 2 days just to get back to par. Could go on and on, but think that will do for now.
To also make this thread more intersting, how much time and capital did all you experienced guys manage to burn up in the early stages of your trading career, before making the turn to becoming successful, consistantly profitable
I think I can answer that for most of us that were not fortunate to get it right of the bat. It would be to much! Exact or estimated numbers do no one justice. Its the past and irrelevant to what we want to do in the future. Always look forward not backwards.
\ Yes, and what was it about you that governed how long it took? How much money it took? Did anyone set goals? How important did you feel they were in directing your mind on the right path?
I fall under this category. When I think about all the big losing trades that happened to me in the past; if I studied MM and how my psychology gets affected by trading. I would have limited my losses to much more.